Nobody knows what I'm dealing with: Jub Jub

2011-12-05 14:45

Johannesburg - Musician Molemo "Jub Jub" Maarohanye denied on Monday that his car was the one that crashed into a group of schoolchildren in Protea North on March 8 last year.

"I did not hit anybody. When I hit the tree there was no one I had hit," he said in the Protea Magistrate's Court in response to questions from his lawyer Ike Motloung.

He and co-accused Themba Tshabalala face charges of murder, attempted murder, and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

He said he was not aware that children had been killed until much later, when he was in a police van on his way to a police station in Dube and a passenger told him.

After a short break he had asked for to compose himself, he was asked why he had been crying. He said: "I asked for a break because I was emotionally overcome. When that accident took place, part of me died. It is a pity no one knows what I have to deal with - the insults, negative comments - I am really sorry about what happened on that day. I just happened to be part of it.

'I didn't kill anybody'

"I didn't plan it. This could have happened to anybody."

Referring to media reports that he had not apologised to the families, he said: "After so long I still haven't had the privilege of seeing the families as I was raised to do in such a case.

"I didn't kill anybody... my condolences to the families."

Maarohanye further denied that he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and that he had been racing.

He said his car hit a curb and a tree before he had a blackout and did not remember what happened.

His denial sparked anger among the families of the four children who were killed and two others who were seriously injured in the crash on Mdlalose Street.

"He's going to shit his pants, the kids were not killed by trees," a victim’s relative shouted from the public gallery.

Earlier Maarohanye told the court Tshabalala was not his friend and knew him through another artist signed on his record label.

- SAPA